From the FieldExpedition: Dangerous ArchipelagoKayaking French Polynesia's Tuamotu IslandsExplorer Jon Bowermaster sends dispatches from the deep South (Pacific).

Dispatch 2: Rangiroa

September 16, 2002

[Note: Nationalgeographic.com does not research or copyedit field dispatches.]

We've now been in the Tuamotus a week, and it's hard to imagine any week being more spectacular. [Already] we've been diving to 130 feet [40 meters]except for John Armstrong, our cameraman, who was down to 160 feet [50 meters][spotting] sharks, maybe two to three meters [6.5 to 10 feet] long ... Unbelievable.

Now we're off to the south side of Rangiroa, the [second largest atoll in the world] maybe 50 miles [80 kilometers] long by 20 miles [32 kilometers] across. We're just skipping from motus, little sand islands, to motu. Today we paddled to a little motu that's maybe a mile [1.6] square. It's called Paati. And I'm looking out now to the ocean which is a couple hundred meters to my left. Standing on the lagoon side, I found myself literally hypnotized by the red bow of the kayak as it plowed through this incredibly blue sea. And the combination of the red and the blue through my polarized sunglasses was literally mesmerizing.

So from here we go to a place in the far western edge of the atoll called the Blue Lagoon. From there, after the Blue Lagoon, we'll head south to Fakarava. So by the time I report in next, we'll hopefully will be nearing Fakarava.